India NEWS

India will on Monday get its very own natural gas trading platform that will help discover local market price for gas through transparent demand-supply matching. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will launch the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) to kickstart natural gas trading, official sources said. IGX is India's first automated national level trading platform to promote and sustain an efficient and robust gas market and foster gas trading in the country.

India’s fuel demand rose by nearly 50% in May as the country eased coronavirus-led restrictions, Oil Ministry data showed on Wednesday, signaling a slow revival of economic activity. Fuel consumption, a proxy for oil demand in Asia’s third-biggest economy, totalled 14.65 million tonnes in May, 47.4% higher than in April but still 23.3% lower than a year earlier, the data from PPAC of the ministry showed..

On May 27, oil and natural gas began to gush out uncontrollably from the Baghjan oil field in Assam’s Tinsukia district in an event known in industry parlance as a blowout. But even as OIL officials and engineers scrambled to contain the leak, a fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon, birthing a towering inferno at the site. Over 2,000 people have been moved to relief camps since the blowout occurred.

A three-member expert team from a Singapore-based emergency management firm on Monday reached Assam's Tinsukia district from where gas is "uncontrollably" flowing out from a well for the past 13 days. State-owned Oil India Limited (OIL) brought the foreign experts to control their gas well blowout at the Baghjan village in Tinsukia, around 550 km east of Guwahati, after natural gas started spewing since May 27.

Following the May 27th blowout at OIL's Baghjan well, the state-run oil major has called top experts from Singapore's Alert Disaster Control to tackle the uncontrolled gas leak from the site. A statement from the firm read, "All safety and security measures are continuously being monitored to protect surrounding villagers and their properties,". The Baghjan blowout is the second in 15 years at an OIL installation.

Oil India Limited (OIL) authorities in Assam’s Tinsukia district shifted 25 families to safety after a natural gas producing well reported a blowout on Wednesday morning. An OIL press statement said that blowout occurred at the Baghjan-5 well at 10.30 am. The well suddenly became very active while the operation was on, the statement added.

Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) announced a new customer-friendly initiative with the launch of cooking gas booking through WhatsApp across the country. WhatsApp booking can be done on BPCL Smartline number — 1800224344 — from the customer’s mobile number registered with the company. BPCL already allows customers to book LPG through other channels like IVRS, missed call, apps, and website among other digital channels apart from its 6,111-strong large distributors.

Indian Oil Corp. is working on an energy transition strategy, which would involve producing hydrogen in a cost-effective way as well as developing technology to combine CNG with hydrogen, its chairman Sanjiv Singh told S&P Global Platts. In addition to refining and fertilizers, hydrogen provides a huge opportunity for the transportation sector, amongst other, but one of the biggest challenges to overcome is to make it commercially viable, he added.

CPCL had reported widening of net loss in Q4 of 2019-20 fiscal to Rs 1,637.56 crore, from Rs 29.33 crore, a year ago on lower crude production and inventory losses. Operational revenue dipped to Rs 11,769.39 crore in January-March from Rs 12,765.15 crore a year back. In 2019-20 fiscal, the company saw its net loss widen to Rs 2,077.58 crore, from Rs 213.36 crore net loss in the previous FY.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) placed Notice of Award (NoA) for seven successful bidders in 13 contract areas comprising of 49 marginal on-land oil and gas fields. The bid process for seeking partners for enhancement of production from 64 marginal nomination fields was held recently. Interested companies participated in the International competitive bidding process for 17 onshore contract areas comprising of producing oil and gas fields.

A team of Forensic experts examined the site for two days and claimed that the gas leakage happened due to human error and negligence. The cooling process was not maintained during the lockdown and this resulted in the generation of enormous amounts of heat and vapors started coming out of the breathers, said the experts. This laxity resulted in the death of 12 people, whilst hundreds were hospitalized.

India's oil major, ONGC, wants marketing and pricing freedom along with the tax cuts. The company wrote an SOS to the government seeking help amidst the crashing prices and slumping market. It has become a challenge to continue with sustaining operations. And if the conditions persist, ONGC might have to cut down on investments. Last month also the state-owned company wrote to the government regarding the abolition of oil cess.

Indian downstream major, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd has devised a novel technology to test the crude oil quality at a minimal cost and time. The current method requires lengthy lab tests. The newly developed technology is called BPMarrk, engineered to optimize varied properties from the crude. A 'crude horoscope predictor tool', BPMarrk has a number of patents including those from the US and the EU.

India's downstream major, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) yesterday informed about commissioning its first petrol pump in Bhutan in its bid to foray into the Himalayan Kingdom. The petrol pump is the first in line of the planned 22 outlets according to the MoU signed with Bhutanese state-run STBCL at select high-potential sites in the country. The ONGC-subsidiary had earlier commissioned its first retail outlet in Bhutan on March 11.

The Government of India, today, finally invited preliminary bids for the sales of its entire 52.98% stakes in India's second-biggest oil refiner, BPCL. The bidders will have to submit an Expression of interest (EOI) by May 2, according to the bid document by the DIPAM. BPCL's stake in Numaligarh Refinery Limited, however, has been excluded from the sale and will be sold only to a state-owned oil and gas firm.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the plea filed by Adani Gas and others over the contract award of piped gas distribution network in Tamil Nadu. The contract was awarded to AG&P LNG, Torrent Gas and SKN Haryana by PNGRB. The apex court bench upheld the contract saying that calling the bidders with the highest composite scores cannot be rebuked, and denied any merit in the submission.

State-run refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) reported a nearly three-fold jump in its net profit to Rs 2,051.43 crore, for the fourth quarter. BPCL's net profit in 3Q2018 was Rs 698.62 crore, the company reported in a regulatory filing. However, revenue from operation slipped over lower oil prices to Rs 85,926.70 crore.

"Oil guzzler, Indian Oil Corporation yesterday informed about completing the revamp of its all units to produce BS-VI grade fuels at its Mathura refinery. The revamp comes months ahead of the deadline for the rollout of newer emission norms from April 2020. With the revamp operations now complete, IOCL Mathura Refinery has become the first refinery in India to supply BS-VI compliant fuels, containing less than 10 ppm sulphur."